I was hammering this weekend and slowly noticed a pain within the inside bulge of my quad above the knee. I was getting close to the end of my ride and maintaining the intensity in an inverse proportion to the pain.
At about 2.5h into the ride, I come across this gate on my ride
(blocks a road closed on the weekends
) the gap between which narrows down to only allow 1 cyclist at a time through. I am usually very generous at these gates, yielding to those approaching, then slipping though before coming to a complete stop. This time
(very rare
), no one was going to let me though, and I would have had to stop except that I hopped the curb, rode a short section of grass, then ramped up the wattage to blast away. This was a mistake as whatever was mildly wrong with my quad, suddenly became a huge, burning issue.
I pretty quickly realized my day was done and immediately turned around
(back through the same gate, this time with no fanfare.
) After a half hour, uphill, I got home and kind of tested my leg, but could not find anything of issue. Today, I wasn't even noticing it until I did something that focused weight on that part of the muscle and I got a flaring pain. I can put out about 1/2 the full strength before I feel anything, but immediately at that point, the leg goes into limp mode.
Is this just a over exertion? Pull? It doesn't seem like something I need to worry about.
P.S. I really wish they wouldn't talk about the wattage the pros are putting out during the TdF. I would have rather NOT known that the wattage I am clawing to hold for a 2-5 minute climb, they are holding for 4-6 hours.